Istanbul, Turkey – Pope Benedict XVI began his pilgrimage among Turkey’s tiny Christian communities Wednesday by paying homage to an Italian priest slain during Islamic protests last winter and expressing sympathy for the pressures facing religious minorities in the Muslim world.
The messages – made at one of the holiest Christian sites in Turkey – could set the tone for the remainder of Benedict’s first papal trip to a Muslim nation as he tries to strengthen bonds with the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians.
The pope is expected to sharpen his calls for what the Vatican calls “reciprocity” – that Muslim demands for greater respect in the West must be matched by increased tolerance and freedom for Christians in Islamic nations.
However, too much pressure by the Roman Catholic pontiff could risk new friction with Muslims after broad gestures of goodwill in the opening hours of the trip Tuesday that sought to ease simmering Muslim anger over the pope’s remarks on violence and the Prophet Muhammad.
The pope’s deepening ties with Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I – called the “first among equals” of the Orthodox leaders – is watched with suspicion in Turkey as a possible challenge to state-imposed limits on Christian minorities and others. Benedict has declared a “fundamental” commitment to try to heal rifts between the two ancient branches of Christianity, which split nearly 1,000 years ago over disputes including papal authority.
At Bartholemew’s walled compound in Istanbul, the pope stood amid black-robbed Orthodox clerics and urged both sides “to work for full unity of Catholics and Orthodox.”
The pope began the day at the ruins of a small stone home at the end of a dirt road near the Aegean Sea – the site where the Virgin Mary is thought to have spent her last years.
At an outdoor Mass attended by 250 invited guests, the pope noted the challenges facing the “little flock” of Christians in a predominantly Muslim Turkey.
